The students of The Polytechnic Ibadan on Tuesday gave the Oyo State government and the institution’s branch of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic, ASUP, a 24-hour ultimatum to resolve their differences and reopen the school or face major student unrest.
The students gave the warning during a peaceful protest staged to condemn the ongoing strike embarked upon by their teachers since October 2013.
Displaying placards with inscriptions criticising the face-off between their lecturers and government, the students marched from the main gate of the campus, through the Sango-UI road and on other major roads within the axis to air their grievances.
Though no major breakdown of law and order was recorded during the protest, the students were accompanied by the Nigerian Police. The protest, however, disrupted vehicular movement for about three hours.
“We can’t continue to tolerate this continuous neglect. They have to resolve whatever is between them and call off this strike. We are tired of staying at home and wasting away. Students are just idling away,” he said.
The action was preemptive of a possibility of extending the protest to Governor’s Office. In his reaction, the state commissioner for Education, Solomon Olaniyonu, blamed the lecturers for the crisis.
“They are not supposed to be on strike. They are not doing what they are supposed to be doing,” he said.
According to him, the government was already looking into the lecturers’ demand and had assured them that the demands would be attended to. However, the chairman of the polytechnic’s chapter of ASUP, Segun Philip, faulted the commissioner’s claim, saying it was the government that had not done what it was supposed to do.
“All our demands have been presented to them and none has been attended to. We have tried all other means to get their attention but they have not worked. So we resolved to embark on that strike since December 2013. There are so many and they have not touched any,” he said.
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